Business: Wobbly Mark

One symbol of West Germany's postwar Wirtschaftswunder, or economic
miracle, has long been the muscular deutsche mark, which gained
strength as the currencies of other industrial states went soft and
saggy. But the mark has been taking a beating itself since Oct. 31, and
two weeks ago it staggered so badly that the central banks of the U.S.,
Britain and France had to take rushed measures to prop it up. Before it
began to recover last week, the mark slumped to a low of 51.2¢ against
the dollar, a prolonged slide from its high of 58.8¢ last January. It
was...